I watched as the two eldest brothers did as Grandpa directed, no questions asked. Talk about trust.
“Now,” Grandpa said, resting a hand on Noble’s shoulder. “Noble, dear boy, please lie down on the blanket.”
I copied everything my grandfather did: he sat, and I sat next to him. Placing my hands on my lap like he did, I waited for further directions.
“Look at Noble,” he commanded.
I did, and Noble gave me a nervous look before his gaze bounced to the high mage.
“This can’t like backfire and kill me, right?” Noble asked nervously.
Grandpa winked. “Not with me in charge.”
Okaaay. Did that mean it could’ve with me in charge? Grandpa’s statement was a bit vague for my liking.
“Nai.” Grandpa’s voice sharpened, yanking me out of my panicked loop of thoughts. “Lookat him.”
My eyes widened. “Iamlooking.”
He grasped the back of my neck, pushing me closer to Noble. “With your other sight.”
“Uh… how?” In the past, I’d closed my eyes and thought of the person to travel through space to them, but this time, Noble was right here.
“Relax,” Grandpa said. “Keep your eyes opened but don’t focus on any one part of your friend.”
After taking a deep breath, I forced my eyes to relax.
“Good.” Grandpa Geoff’s voice softened, and he waved his hand in front of my face. “Zone out, so all you see is a blur. Let yourself go, until you see the black fur of his wolf.”
He continued talking, and I let his monotone voice lull me until that trancelike feeling settled over me.
I gasped as the transparent form of a black wolf appeared, hovering just a few inches over Noble’s entire body. Where Noble’s hands and feet were, I saw wolf paws and legs and his big furry body … all of it see-through—like a ghost.
“Holy Mother Mage.”
“Okay, so hold that vision—don’t let the wolf get away,” Grandpa said. He ran his hands over Noble’s body, grazing the soul of his wolf. “Now, we must separate them.”
Noble’s eyes widened.
As my grandpa grasped the wolf’s spirit by the neck, the beast snapped his jaws. “Nai,” Grandpa Geoff said. “Help me wrangle him.”
Oh mage!
I grasped the front paws of his wolf and startled at the strange sensation. The animal’s limbs felt cold yet solid in my hands. “It’s okay,” I crooned. “Come with me so Honor can come back to us.”
“That looks weird,” Justice said. “It’s like you’re grabbing air.”
Noble winced. “I promise it doesn’tfeellike air.” Gasping, he added, “It’s burning … a little … or a lot.”
We’d started to tug upward, but when gramps and I pulled his wolf up, Noble’s body came too. The high mage turned to Justice and Rage. “Hold him down. It will hurt them both less if you apply pressure.”
Rage and Justice knelt before their brother, Rage at Noble’s shoulders and Justice at his feet, gripping his ankles tightly.
“We’ve got you, bro,” Justice said, his voice rough. “We’ll get through this.”
“Nai…” Gramps looked at me. “As we extract his wolf, Noble may try to shift as a survival instinct—to keep the two of them together.”
Almost on cue, fur rippled down Noble’s arms, and the wolf form I held grew taut as it tried to suck back into Noble’s body.
